The 5 Most Offensive Attempts at Video Game Marketing

There are two forces struggling to define the public perception of video games. First we have the gamers. These are often reasonable adults who are tired of being portrayed as frothy-mouthed would-be sex offenders with the collective attention span of an alcoholic gnat. And then we have the video game advertisers, who are all too eager to reinforce these stereotypes.

After all, from their end, the true value of a promotional campaign is in how much they can get the press talking about it. And how do you get the press to talk about it? Why, by triggering the outrage and/or ridicule of all of the non-gamers of the world. Thanks, guys!

In any case, gaming label Deep Silver decided to get the hell off of the high road for the campaign for the game's 2013 sequel, Dead Island: Riptide. They decided to market the collector's edition of the game with a "grotesque take on an iconic Roman marble torso sculpture," which you can see below. Can't you see the art history oozing out of it?

Via Gamespot.comIf Michelangelo had lived another 20 years, this was what he'd be going for.

Here's the thing that Deep Silver (and many other gaming companies, as we'll see in a moment) don't get: Sex and violence are not like peanut butter and jelly. They are not two great tastes that taste great together. Hacking up zombies -- it's dandy. Boobs, ditto. But attaching a pair of pert breasts to a decapitated zombie torso? That's a crime against both sex and violence. Although to be fair, for a slaughtered torso, it's surprisingly, almost disturbingly modest (please note that the young lady's Union Jack two-piece has been left completely intact by the zombie attack). Because a zombie bite deep enough to expose bone didn't snap them, the strings on that bikini must be titanium wire.

It could have been a little worse.

So yes, this, uh, object is a "striking conversation piece," in that if you see this in someone's home, the best course of action is to distract them with conversation and then strike them on the damn head with it. Remember, bloody torsos are like cockroaches: If you see one, there are probably a lot more hidden out of sight. In the end, Deep Silver responded to complaints with a par-for-the-course, half-assed non-apology.

#4. Juiced Promotes Magical Molestation

Juiced was a forgettable racing title for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox that came out in 2005. In fact, the only reason anybody remembers it is because of its not-safe-for-work ad, which featured two dude-bros sexually assaulting a woman with enchanted video game controllers.

The scene begins with two guys hanging out in a car. They are enjoying the everyday pleasure of playing Juiced on their car's dashboard and dancing to rap music in a manner normally reserved for vivacious grandmothers in erectile dysfunction ads. Anyway, one of the players looks out the window and notices that, by adjusting the paint job on his in-game car, he's somehow changing the clothing of a redhead standing outside. Unfazed by their newfound paranormal powers, our scumbag protagonists immediately use them to telekinetically motorboat the nearest bystander.

It's tough to decide which is more awful: the poor woman's gasps of dismay as she's fondled by dark magic, or the guys' expressions of childlike wonder, as if groping a stranger via Xbox is like finding a puppy under the tree on Christmas morning.

Eventually the players strip the woman down to her thong and slap the Juiced logo on her keister. To reiterate, here are two men literally treating a woman as a customizable object and branding her ass like a cow. Was the Juiced ad team drinking hair gel when they dreamed this up? This spot never aired (because who would air it?), but we wouldn't be surprised if it's been recycled as an early draft of the upcoming Entourage movie.

Via YouTubeShortening her skirt is the last "safe for work" thing you'll see in the video.

#3. Resident Evil Relies on Breast-Feeding and Chicken Guts

When you think of Capcom's series of Resident Evil survival horror games, you naturally think of a naked mother -- generous of bosom and buttocks -- providing sustenance to her newborn child. Indeed, this French TV ad for 2005's Resident Evil 4 is a terrific example of the soothing, low-key breast-feeding gameplay that's made Resident Evil a hit worldwide.

Note the elegant camerawork as the camera pans across the mother's shoulders, the naturalistic and unashamed depiction of the suckling child, and the natural beauty of ZUT ALORS MES AMIS HALF THE PEOPLE WATCHING THIS CHOKED ON THEIR CROQUE-MONSIEURS.

Via YouTubeThat's actually how most breast-feedings end, though. Kudos on the realism.

And for 2009's Resident Evil 5, Capcom's marketing wizards ditched the breast-feeding angle and appealed to English gamers with a London scavenger hunt for appendages. Players competed for a vacation to Africa by collecting body parts, each of which was worth a certain number of points: two points for limbs, five points for heads, and three points for (bikini-less) torsos. To make the props more realistic, they were smeared in chicken liver.